This is our old blog. It hasn't been active since 2011. Please see the link above for our current blog or click the logo above to see all of the great data and content on this site.

Doing It Without Much Sweat

Posted by Steve Lombardi on September 16, 2008

In honor of Mo Rivera becoming #2 all-time in career saves last night, here's a fun list via Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Pitching Game Finder - - since 1996, the leaders in saves where the pitcher required 9 pitches or less to nail down the save:

                   Games Link to Individual Games
+-----------------+-----+-------------------------+
 Trevor Hoffman      109 Ind. Games
 Mariano Rivera       93 Ind. Games
 Billy Wagner         57 Ind. Games
 Todd Jones           56 Ind. Games
 Jose Mesa            55 Ind. Games
 Jason Isringhause    51 Ind. Games
 Robb Nen             46 Ind. Games
 Bob Wickman          43 Ind. Games
 Ugueth Urbina        41 Ind. Games
 Roberto Hernandez    41 Ind. Games
 Armando Benitez      41 Ind. Games

Click here to see the extended list.

3 Responses to “Doing It Without Much Sweat”

  1. Mo Keeps Goin’, And, Goin’… : WasWatching.com Says:

    [...] been at it for a loooong time. When he got his first career save, on May 17, 1996, Joe Giradi batted second [...]

  2. Johnny Twisto Says:

    Not long ago Rivera passed Righetti in saves of over 1 inning for the Yankees. He's now got 106 in his career. 2nd most among active pitchers are Hoffman and Foulke with 55.

  3. Johnny Twisto Says:

    The major differences I notice between this list and the list of most saves, period: Troy Percival had the 4th most saves, but only 12th most in under 10 pitches. Conversely, and surprisingly, Jose Mesa has the 5th most quick saves but is only 9th overall.